Goat cheese and almond salad

I did this project with one of my friends, who sells great food in Latvia, and this is one of the recipes I created. Simple, yet so tasty because the basic ingredients are of the best quality, and when that happens, cooking is more than easy. I have always thought that it is hard to find good ingredients, but when you do, it is so easy to cook with them. You can use any brand of rosemary almonds or even make them yourself, but in this recipe, the correct thing to say would be that this recipe was inspired by Filbert's French Rosemary Almonds. I try to avoid the package when I open it, otherwise by the end of the day, there are none left for the salad. But they just give that added value to this super simple salad.

Ingredients

12 0.5 cm slices of baguette or sourdough bread that you can shape yourself
180 g soft rind goat cheese, cut into 0.7 - 1 cm slices
300 g mix of lettuce leaves
8 tbsp mild French extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp raspberry vinegar
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp honey
80 g Filbert’s French Rosemary Almonds, roughly chopped
handful of roughly cut chives (I cut them with scissors)
sea salt to taste
freshly ground pepper to taste

Prepare

Heat the oven to 200°. If using a baguette, place the cheese on each slice; if using big sourdough slices, cut them into rounds with a cookie cutter and place cheese on top. Place on the pan and bake in the oven until the cheese gets golden brown while you make the salad.

While the bread is browning, place the lettuce leaves into a bowl. In a small bowl, mix oil, honey, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. Pour over the salad. Sprinkle with almonds and chives, and when the bread is ready, put the slices on top. Serve. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Recipe and pictures: Signe Meirane
Camera: Sony Alpha 7s